The plot thickens over JPG Magazine's supposed departure. As I continue to read the news coming out from JPG and elsewhere, I find it difficult not to get cynical. After all, in the original goodbye letter, didn't editor in chief Laura Brunow Miner say “we sought out buyers, spoke with numerous potential investors, and pitched several last-ditch creative efforts, all without success?”

Either JPG did a pretty incomplete job looking for buyers – especially considering all the rumors that Flickr will be the buyer – or this was all part of the plan to cut staff in half and start a cash-only bidding war.

What's your take? Does something about this smell fishy?

In other news, I stumbled upon some humorous (that is, humorous because there were no injuries) “glad that's not me” photos of a skier who ended up suspended upside down sans pants on a lift in Vail, Colorado. Unfortunately, the photos – taken by a resort photographer off-duty and with his own camera – have cost the photographer his job with Sharpshooter Images.

Well, January 5 is rolling to a close and JPGMag.com is still up and running for the time being. Personally, I'm not harboring much enthusiasm for sudden redemption and prosperity, but I do view JPG Magazine's demise as a significant loss to the photo community. Why?

1. The synergistic relationship between the online community and the printed publication filled a unique niche in the contemporary photo scene. The interactive nature of the selection process gave the final product a richer meaning than a more traditional, behind-closed-doors jury.

2. Users could submit words and/or images. This was a match made in heaven for those of us multi-talented folks looking for a place to show off our writing and images side by side (as they should be).

3. Many unknown artists got work published and received valuable feedback from the community.

4. As I've said previously when commenting on the Baker Artist Awards, the newest generation of visual artists has come to expect a certain level of interactivity. No longer are impersonal submission processes and sterile magazine pages going to be stimulating and inspiring for new artists...or so I suspect.

The problem with user-generated content that hurts profitability is anyone can do it. The stumbling block facing fantastic, innovative projects like JPG and the Baker Awards is, how do you separate the wheat from the chaff? Sure, Baker and JPG unearth a lot of talented new artists, but by their very nature they also attract some mundane, poorly considered work that brings the whole community down. As the pool grows larger, so does the percentage of work that makes me sigh and ask “really?”

My thoughts in the aftermath of all this are, given that the playing field is definitely shifting toward a broader, more participatory model, how can the photo community address the “everyone wants to be a photographer” issue? How can we set standards without being exclusionary or elitist? How might the definition of “photographer” be altered by advances in technology, both online and on the shelf of the local camera store (or the Target, as the case may be)?

A few days ago I took advantage of a buy one get one promotion and ordered subscriptions to JPG Magazine for myself and a friend.  Sadly, this morning I received the following email announcing JPG is going under after two years of awesome work in the photo community.  Apparently the outpouring of support that followed the JPG Magazine Says Goodbye email offers a glimmer of hope for the bi-monthly mag to live on, but we'll see.  If they're planning on shutting down the website on January 5, something big will have to happen very quickly.  What do you think will become of the JPG community?

Today is a particularly sad day for all of us at JPG and 8020 Media.

We've spent the last few months trying to make the business behind JPG sustain itself, and we've reached the end of the line. We all deeply believe in everything JPG represents, but we just weren't able to raise the money needed to keep JPG alive in these extraordinary economic times. We sought out buyers, spoke with numerous potential investors, and pitched several last-ditch creative efforts, all without success. As a result, jpgmag.com will shut down on Monday, January 5, 2009.

The one thing we've been the most proud of: your amazing talent. We feel honored and humbled to have been able to share jpgmag.com with such a dynamic, warm, and wonderful community of nearly 200,000 photographers. The photography on the website and in the magazine was adored by many, leaving no doubt that this community created work of the highest caliber. The kindness, generosity, and support shared among members made it a community in the truest sense of the word, and one that we have loved being a part of for these past two years.

We wish we could have found a way to leave the site running for the benefit of the amazing folks who have made JPG what it is, and we have spent sleepless nights trying to figure something out, all to no avail. Some things you may want to do before the site closes:

- Download the PDFs of back issues, outtakes, and photo challenge selections. We'll always have the memories!  www.jpgmag.com/downloads/archives.html
- Make note of your favorite photographers. You may want to flip through your favorites list and jot down names and URLs of some of the people you'd like to stay in touch with. You may even want to cut and paste your contacts page into a personal record.
- Catch up with your fellow members. Our roots are in this humble flickr forum and we recommend going back to find fellow members, discuss the situation, or participate in another great photo community. www.flickr.com/groups/jpgmag/
- Keep in touch. This has always been much more than just a job to each of us, and we'll miss you guys! We'll be checking the account jpgletters@gmail.com in our free time going forward. We can't promise to reply to every email (since we'll be busy tuning up our resumes) but we'd love to hear from you.
- Stay posted. Although the magazine is ceasing publication, we'll be updating you on what's happening with your subscription early next week.

We're soggy-eyed messes, but it is what it is. At that, JPGers, we bid you goodbye, and good luck in 2009 and the future.

Laura Brunow Miner
Editor in Chief